He does so, partly to record that the decline and eventual collapse of the Medici bank had little impact on the banking system as a whole.

ECONOMIST: Renaissance Florence

Dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici, the book draws on examples from history, of Alexander the Great and of the German city states, to teach its readers some eternal lessons.

ECONOMIST: Idea

"Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici, known as the Magnificent, " on loan from the Silver Museum, is a 16th-century agate-and-gold cameo celebrating his role as an art patron.

WSJ: Museum Exhibit Review: Gems of the Medici at the Bowers Museum

Paul Robertson, who leads the Medici Quartet, reports growing demand from doctors and businessmen for his lectures on music and the mind.

ECONOMIST: Music as healing

Worn by Marie de Medici during her 1610 coronation as the queen of France, it later passed on to the House of Orange-Nassau, now the Dutch royal family, and then to the collection of the queen of England before arriving in Prussia in 1702.

WSJ: The Beau Sancy Diamond at Sotheby's: From Prussia, With Love